Two Sundays ago, hundreds of thousands of women converged on Washington, D.C., in what was billed as a March for Women's Lives. As a demonstration for reproductive rights, the event was about much more than abortion. The marchers' placards evoked a broad range of issues relating to women's health and security. Yet one issue curiously absent from the day's agenda was the pervasive violence against women and girls. That theme will figure prominently in the next big demonstration, scheduled for Sunday, when the Million Mom March organization will gather on the west lawn of the Capitol for the "Mother's Day March to Halt the Assault."

The marchers plan to pressure Congress to extend the federal ban on assault weapons, which is set to expire in September. For many people  including the liberal-minded politicians and celebrities on whom organizers count to attract publicity  the two marches, one pro-abortion rights and the other anti-gun, will be on a seamless ideological continuum.

But they shouldn't be.

The option of arming oneself for protection is a matter of personal choice in many of the same ways, and for the same reasons, as the option of ending a pregnancy.

Mary Zeiss Stange teaches Women's Studies and Religion at Skidmore College. She is co-author of Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

Good article, especially from a professor of "Women's Studies"! While I think the abortion issue is best left to the several States, it's refreshing to hear someone in academia argue from the position of Constitutional rights to increase freedom rather than feel-good propaganda that increases government control.

11
posted on 05/06/2004 1:32:20 PM PDT
by FreedomFlynnie
(Why is it that people who call themselves "progressives" are always against all progress?)

Most of the people who read your post would gladly give up the right to own a gun if they could also make abortion illegal. "All power to the government." is their motto. Personal responsibility and personal freedom are their enemy.

Hey Mary. Learn your history. Then take geometry so you know what logic is. Killing an unborn child is not a constitutional right and is, in fact, murder, no matter what semantics you want to use. Don't push me you liberal nazi *itch.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.